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Questions & Answers about J'admire le jardin.
What does the sentence J'admire le jardin mean in English?
It translates to I admire the garden.
Why is there an apostrophe in J'admire?
The apostrophe shows the elision of je (meaning I) before a word starting with a vowel. In French, je admire becomes j'admire to ease pronunciation.
What tense and person is used for the verb in J'admire le jardin?
The verb admirer is conjugated in the present tense for the first person singular. This means the speaker is saying I admire.
What role does the definite article le play in this sentence?
The article le is the masculine singular definite article in French, which here specifies that the speaker is admiring the garden (a particular garden).
How do we know that jardin is a masculine noun?
In French, the definite article le is used with masculine nouns. Since the sentence uses le jardin, it tells us that jardin is masculine.
How does contraction work with the pronoun je when it is followed by a verb starting with a vowel?
To maintain a smooth and fluid pronunciation, je loses its vowel and becomes j' before verbs that start with a vowel or a mute h. This process is called elision.
How would you form the negative version of this sentence?
In French, to make the sentence negative, you use ne (or its contracted form n' before a vowel) and pas around the verb. So, it becomes Je n'admire pas le jardin. Notice that in the negative form, the subject remains Je and the contraction now occurs with ne + admire to form n'admire.